Japan To Relax Covid - 19 Reporting Rules, Ease Border Entry
Japan's government is planning to relax some of its COVID-19 measures. Prime Minister Kishida Fumio says doctors will not need to file as much data about patients who test positive and that fully vaccinated travelers will be allowed to skip the pre-flight PCR test.
Under the current system, medical staff have to collect detailed personal information about every patient who tests positive and enter it into a government system. Doctors have complained it can be extremely time-consuming.
Prime Minister Kishida Fumio said, "Now, local governments will be able to decide to narrow the scope of their detailed reports to cover only certain specific groups, such as elderly patients, those who need hospitalization, or those at serious risk who require medication."
He also said medical institutions will still be required to record the number of positive cases.
A Tokyo-based doctor said the changes will ease the burden on medical workers, but there may be some challenges.
Hase Hiromu said, "There could be instances in which infected people are initially categorized as low-risk, but then develop serious symptoms later on. So we need to figure out how to deal with that kind of scenario."
The announcement comes as Japan is battling its biggest wave of coronavirus infections yet. Officials are regularly reporting more than 200,000 new cases a day.
The number of people self-isolating at home topped 1.5 million at one point this month.
The government is also making it a little easier to enter the country. From September 7, arrivals will no longer need to show a negative COVID test result if they've received a third vaccine shot.